Swiatek Set For Title Defense In Doha; Pegula, Gauff Among Contenders
Iga Swiatek leads a loaded field for the WTA 500 event in Doha. The world No. 1 is one of seven players in the Top 10 in the tournament along with Jessica Pegula, Caroline Garcia and Coco Gauff.
This is Swiatek’s first event since an Australian Open loss to Elena Rybakina.
Top seeds are 1 Iga Swiatek, 2 Jessica Pegula, 3 Caroline Garcia, 4 Coco Gauff, 5 Maria Sakkari, 6 Daria Kasatkina, 7 Belinda Bencic, 8 Veronika Kudermetova.
No. 1 Swiatek is projected to meet 7 Bencic in the quarters, with No. 4 Gauff – 8 Kudermetova, No. 5 Sakkari – 3 Garcia, and 6 seed Kasatkina – 2 Pegula in the bottom quarter.
The semifinals could see Swiatek-Gauff and in the bottom half it’s slated to be Pegula-Garcia.
Swiatek opens with a bye then gets the winner of Danielle Collins and a qualifier. The second seeded Pegula opens also has a bye then gets will face either Madison Keys or Jelena Ostapenko.
Among the notable first round matches: Petra Kvitova-Shuai Zhang, Maria Sakkari-Qinwen Zheng, Paula Badosa-Beatriz Haddad Maia and Madison Keys-Jelena Ostapenko.
Former champions: Swiatek, Azarenka (2) and Kvitova (2). Former finalists: Ostapenko.
Last year in the final, (7) Iga Swiatek defeated (4) Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-0; the event began her 37-match win streak.
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